Structural toy.



C. C. HARRIS. STRUCTURAL TOY.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 5,1915.

Patented Nov. 28, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

l J F' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- CARL C. HARRIS, OF ORANGE,MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO BIVETO MANUFAC- TUBING, COMPANY, OF ORANGE,MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA- V CHUS ETTS.

STRUG'IJURAL TOY'.

Specification of Letters l 'atent.

Application filed November 5, 1915. Serial No. 59,84,57.

' State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Structural Toy,of which the following is a specification.-

The principal objects of this invention are to provide a simplified,cheap toy which will.

be more interesting than those now on the market, and more especlally toprovidea toy of this character which can be made in the I form of stripsof sheet material provided with markings, signs or numerals to indi catewhere they are to be bent, perforated or joined together, which markingsdo not affect the strength of the material, but which merely indicatepositions; to provide means for identifying similar positions on thedifferent strips, so that they can be cut, perforated, joined or foldedin the same place without the necessity of counting up from end to end,thus facilitating the making of symmetrical products; and to providethese strips in such form that with a very simple eyeleting or staplingdevice different strips can be connected together in a permanent manner,so that the structures made can be kept and used for a considerableperiod of time, the cheapness of the material employed being sufficientto Warrant this use.

Further objects of the invention, in its preferred forms, are to providethese advantages in the form ofjsheets of any desired sheet material andparticularly of paper or card-board, so, arranged as to render it possible for a child using the toy to cut the sheets up himself and formstrips,,plates, or elements for use in building up a "toy; to providemeans whereby the sheets or strips which he uses for the actualconstructionof the toy will not be perforated except at the points atwhichjoints' are to be made, so that the usual strengthof the materialWill be made full use of and the strip will not be weakened as is thecase with toys ofthis character with which children are most familiar.

The invention also involves the sheet of themselves, and the combinationof the strips in the form of toys.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which i Figure lis a plan of a sheet of material marked toindicate how it is to be cut,folded and perforated according to this invention;

Fig. 2 is a similar view of one of the strips or plates after being cutfrom this sheet; Fig. 3 is a perspective view ofa toy formed from aplurality of these strips; Fig. 4 is a view of a member or plate ofdifferent form cut from the same sheet; Fig. 5'is a viewof another blankshowing how the parts of furniture can be represented by means of thisinvention; Fig. 6 1s a PBISPGCUVB} view Patented Nov. 28, 1916.

material which is used to produce the strips of a toy chair madetherefrom and Figs. 7

and 8 are perspective views of modified forms of strips. 7

Structural toys of the general character represented by this inventionso far as I am aware, are made up mainly of plates, particularly flangedplates, which are provided with a series of perforations and are made ofmetal so that they can be used time after time for the construction ofdifferent toys. Although these have been used extensively and haveproven successful, yet they are open to some objections. In the firstplace, the strips have to be made of durable material on account ofbeing provi'dedwith so many perforations, and furthermore on account ofusing the'plates over and over, a

child using them is practically compelled to destroyone toy before hecan build another unless he has a complicated and expensive set. Thisinvention is designed largely to overcome these difficulties byproviding plates or strips of a very simple character unperforated untilthey are ready to be connected together, and consequently strong thedrawin s Fi 1 shows a iece of cardg board A. On 'thisare printed aseries at symmetrical figures, in this instance, squares a. In the formshown these are arranged in rows, twenty in a row for purposes whichwill appear. Each square or zone is provided wit-h a circle a in thecenter. This circle may be a plain white circle or it may have someother shaped figure, and in this drawing a preferred form is shown, inwhich appears a black field a and two white fields a. In the whitefields are arranged numerals and it will be noted that in the preferredform the numeralsl to 10 run from left to right and then begin overagain, the numerals 1 to 10 being repeated. These are located in thelower white fields a while in the upper white fields corresponding arethe same two series of numerals, but beginning at the other end andlocated the other side up. It will be noted also that the marginal linesof these squares divide up the sheet along longitudinal and transverselines. In the present instance, parallel lines are shown vertically andtransversely and for a purpose which will appear.

In the use of the main portion of the in vention as indicated in Fig. 1the material is intended to be cut preferably into longitudinal stripsor plates D as shown in Fig. 2. Each of these plates will, of course,bear circles, squares and numerals as described in connection withFig. 1. It will be understood, of course that the main blank can be cutinto other shapes, L-shaped figures, squares, or shapes indicatingarticles of furniture or other structures which it is desired to build.A portion of a'bench made in this manner is indicated by the plate Eshown in Fig. 4. The main use of the device, however, is indicated inFig. 3. In this case several of these strips D are shown. In the case ofthe construction of a step ladder for example, as indicated in thisfigure, four strips D are taken of the same length. Each of these isperforated in the first square, the one that is numbered 9-2 in thiscase and they are pivoted together in pairs by placing a common eyelet(Z through the matching perforations. This can be done by any ordinaryeyelet punching and setting device and no specific form is indicatedherein as any desired kind can be used. The several steps of the stepladder are made by taking strips or plates formed in this instance bycutting the sheets in two between the squares numbered 6 and thosenumbered 7 along the double lines. Then these strips are bent along thefirst and last double lines. It will be seen that on account of havingthe numbers, the points at which the strip is to be cut and also bentare readily identified without danger of error in counting, ,amdconsequently all these steps will be made just alike without effort onthe part of the child using the toy. The

several bent over ends are then secured to the two main uprights of thestep-ladder by eyeletingthese bent squares to the same through thecircles numbered 4, and 8, from the end. Having determined this pointthe child using the toy prepares the second one in the same way, anddoes not have to go through any complicated system of counting in orderto get a symmetrical construction. The rest of the article is formed ina similar way and need not be described in detail. It is found inpractice that on account of this system of numbering for the purpose ofidentifying the proper places at which to perforate, join, bend or cutthe plates quite complicated toys can be made by a very young childwithout trouble and that this introduces a feature that is veryinteresting to the youthful mind. Pictures of many kinds can befurnished with the set at small expense, and the child is at liberty todesign other structures as he may see fit. The punching of the holesdoes not weaken the strips because the eyelets are introduced at thispoint which actually has the effect of strengthening them. Furthermoreon account of having the strips unperforated between joints they arecomparatively strong and serve the desired purpose as well as isnecessary. The fact that the child is not expected to take the toy topieces but can keep it indefinitely adds to his interest in the toybecause whole sets of furniture and simple machines and other toys canbe made and kept for future use. This does away with the chief objectionto the ordinary structural toys, namely, that'the work done to make acomplicated one has to be rendered useless before another one can bemade under ordinary circumstances.

It will be noticed that there are several independent circles shown onthe sheet A in Fig. 1. One of these circles B, is pro- Vided withseveral inner circles 6, such as those described above, each one havinga number. A circle C is shown similarly arranged and two -other circlesC and C each having a single central circle 0. It is to be understoodthat several of these sheets will accompany each set of toys, and thesecircles are used for the purpose of making pulleys and the like. In thepresent case two of the circles 13 canbe cut out and a single one of thecircular plates C placed between them, the numbered circles 72 thereinbeing placed to register with each other. It will be seen that by takingtwo disks B and placing one disk C between them the central circlenumbered 1 can be cut out in all of them and the three disks fastenedtogether by introducing eyelets at the twos and fours or through all ofthe four circles surrounding the central one This produces a pulleywhich will receive a string 01' a rubber band as a belt. The disks C andC can be used in the same way without fastening them together, except bythe central eyelet.

I11 Figs. 5 and 6 I have shown a blank F designed solely forv theproduction of a single toy and the toy produced therefrom. In this casethe blank is provided with figures f, each representing one elevation orplan of the. toy to be produced, and each having circles a as, beforenumbered in various ways accordingto the shape of the article. These canbe combined with the plates or strips formed from the blank A in Fig. 1,or this blank l6 can be so designed as to combine all the elementsnecessary as shown. For example, in place of the one figure showing theside view of a chair it might sliow only the seat, back, and front ofthe chair. In that case the legs and horizontal strips can be made upfrom the mat ter shown in Fig. 1, but in this figure the entire articleis shown in the form of several figures representing its differentelevations and a plan, and they are cut out and eyeleted together inthedesired places as indicated by the numbers. This produces a complete toyas shown at H in Fig. 6.

In one of these figures the outlines along which the parts are to beseparated are shown as formed of rows of perforations f to permit ofready separation. It will be understood, of course, that the user canpunch the perforations at places not indicated by the circles,thusextending the field of use. But in this case he will still use theadjacent numerals and circles for locating purposes.

In Fig. 7 a strip or plate D is shown which has a longitudinal flange.In this case the numerals are shown outside the circles and instead ofthe double lines marks are shown stopping short of the edges. In Fig. 8the strip D is shown in tape form, preferably put up in a roll and thedots for theperforations and numerals are shown on both sides foradditional case in handling.

In addition to the uses of this invention as a toy, it is capable ofbeing used advantageously for giving instructions in geometry.

It is obvious that the various features of this invention can bemodified in various ways without departing from the scope thereof asexpressed in the claims. fore Ido not wish to be limited to the exactdetails as herein shown and described, but

What I do claim is 1. As an article of manufacture, an element or platefor use in building a toy structure consisting of a strip of imperforatesheet material capable of being perforated by a hand punch and having aseries of means thereon for indicating a plurality of positions forperforations.

2. As an article of manufacture, an element or plate for use in buildinga toy Therestructure, comprising a piece of sheet material having aseries of marks thereon for indicating a plurality of positions forperforations, said series of marks being located in regular order, theplate also hav- 7 ing means for indicating and readily identifyingdifferent marks to enable the user to pick out any specific one.

3. A plate for use in building a toy structure comprising a piece offiat sheet material having marks thereon arranged at in tervalsindicating points at which the materialis to be bent, the zones betweensaid points being provided with means indicating and readily identifyingdifferent zones to enable the user to pick out specific ones.

4. As an article of manufacture, a plate for use in building a toystructure comprising a piece of flat imperforate sheet material capableof being perforated by a hand punch and divided up into a plurality ofZones of equal size divided fromeach other to indicate where the platecan be bent, said Zones being provided with marks for indicating wherethe plate is to be perforated.

5. As an article of manufacture, an element or plate for use in buildinga toy structure comprising a piece of imperforate sheet vmaterialhavinga series of means thereon facilitate the identification of anyparticular one.

6. As an article of manufacture, an element for use in building a toystructure comprising a piece of sheet material having a series of meansthereon for indicating a plurality of positions for connections, saidmeans being provided with numerals arranged in regular order tofacilitate the identification of any particular one, and eX- tendingfrom each end toward the other end.

7. As an article of manufacture, an element for use in building a toystructure comprising a piece of sheet material having a series of meansthereon for indicating a plurality of positions for connections, saidmeans being provided with numerals arranged in regular order tofacilitate the identification of any particular one, said numeralsrunning to a certain number and thenbeing repeated.

8. In a structural toy, the combination of a plurality of plates eachhaving arranged thereon a series of marks equally spaced on the severalplates for indicating the positions of perforations to be made, means onthe several strips for indicating in the same manner the marks atcorresponding distances from the ends of the respective strips, wherebythe user can readily identify the particular position for "placing theperforations or fastening the several strips to make the strips uniformand enable them to be used for making a symmetrical structure.

9. A toy structure made up of a plurality of imperforate plates of sheetmaterial capable of being perforated by a hand punch and each beingprovided with marks there on equally spaced apart and similarly locatedon the different plates for indicating points at which the plates are tobe fas tened together, and means for permanently fastening the plates toeach other to form the structure.

10. A structural toy made up of a plurality of imperforate plates ofsheet material capable of being perforated by a hand punch and eachprovided with means regu larly spaced thereon for indicating the pointsat which the plates are to be secured together and eyelets permanentlyconnecting said plates 'with each other at certain of said points.

11. toy structure made up of a plurality of plates of sheet material,each being provided with marks thereon spaced apart and similarlylocated on the difierent plates for indicating points at which theplates are fastened together, and'means for permanently fastening theplates to each other to form the structure, each of said plates beingprovided with numerals arranged thereon in regular order for the purposeof identifying the specific marks at which the connections are made.

12. A structural toy made up of a plurality of plates of sheet material,each provided with means regularly spaced thereon for indicating thepoints at which the plates are secured together and eyelets permanentlyconnecting said plates With each other at certain of said points, saidplates being provided with tWo sets of numerals, one set extending fromone end and the other from the other end.

13. As an article of manufacture, a blank for the manufacture ofstructural toys consisting of a sheet of material capable of beingperforated by a hand punch and having printed or stamped thereon aplurality of rows of symmetrically shaped figures, each of said figureshaving thereintmeans for indicating a proposed perforation whereby saidblank can be cut up into plates which can be secured together byconnecting them at the perforations.

14. As an article of manufacture, a blank for the purpose describedconsisting of a sheet of material having printed thereon longitudinaland lateral rows of circles for indicating the position of proposedperforations, and longitudinal and lateral parallel lines forminggeometrical figures inclosing said circles, whereby said sheets can becut up into plates along said lines, the circles being arranged in rowsand provided With numerals for assisting in indicating the positions ofthe circles on the sheet.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

CARL C. HARRIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. O.

